Sleepers

Four boys accidentally injure a man and end up going to a juvenile detention center, where they are abused and beaten. Years later, they try to rectify the situation by putting the abusers—and the institution—on the stand. Director Barry Levinson leaves Baltimore for this movie and goes to Hell's Kitchen; the beginning sequences are lovely, and the juvenile jail is harrowing, but the movie falls apart in the second half. There's just not enough drive to keep the plot going once the most brutal of them all (Kevin Bacon) is killed. A lot of "Count of Monte Christo" imagery, but none of the punch. With Robert DeNiro, Brad Pitt, Jason Patric, and the mainstream film debut of UNC's own Billy Crudup.

—Ian Williams

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